


Rough Skies

by Cosmic_Biscuit



Category: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Steampunk, Ambiguous Relationships, Drama, F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-16
Updated: 2013-02-16
Packaged: 2017-11-29 13:15:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/687364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cosmic_Biscuit/pseuds/Cosmic_Biscuit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Enroute to their next mission destination, a trio of gear charmers are beset by a familiar enemy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rough Skies

**Author's Note:**

  * For [panda_hiiro](https://archiveofourown.org/users/panda_hiiro/gifts).



The captain had given warning in advance that the airship would be passing through a storm during the night, so they’d taken care to stow their supplies in the locked down chests and cover their hammocks to keep from being tossed about the cabin.

However, Mami still couldn’t sleep.  An uneasy feeling covered her, making her skin prickle and itch in the warm air. Finally, it became too irritating to bear, and she unfastened her bindings and slipped out of her hammock. Carefully, silently making her way across the pitching deck barefoot, she’d just reached the hatch to go up top when a mechanical peep made her look over her shoulder to find a small head poking out of the travel bag she'd tied to her hammock's supports.

“Shush, Charlotte,” Mami murmured, putting a finger to her lips. “You can come, but only if you’re quiet enough to not wake the others.”

Her little clockwork doll nodded excitedly and floated up out of the pack to cling to her shoulder, wrapping long sleeves around her neck like a scarf. She gave it a pat on the head, then unlatched the hatch.

Conditions on the top deck had already taken a turn for the worse. She had to cling to the railing to keep her balance, and Charlotte made a shrill little squeal, hanging on tighter to keep from being blown away. Peeking through the windows of the wheelhouse, she could see the helmsman struggling to keep the ship on course as winds buffeted the balloon above their heads and the hulls under their feet. 

But the storm wasn’t the source of her anxiety, even as the wind began bringing stinging rain with it. She couldn’t identify what was-

Charlotte squealed again, much more urgently than before, and then Mami saw them, her heart freezing in her chest.

Swirling around in the clouds were hundreds of the glittering, gemlike pinpoints of light that she knew all too well.

The glow of Incubator eyes.

Hissing a vehement curse under her breath, Mami whirled around and went back the way she came. Alarms began ringing out as the ship also registered the presence of the hated creatures, and she flung open the hatch, no longer caring about wind or noise as she dropped down to land elegantly on her feet. “Move yourselves, my darlings! We have trouble.”

Homura was already out of her hammock and pulling on her boots at the sound of the alarms, and Madoka rubbed her eyes sleepily. “What’s wrong? Is it pirates?”

“Worse. The Incubators have found us. Time to go earn our passage.”

_That_ woke her partner up, and Madoka freed herself and rolled to her feet, all three going to their travel gear to retrieve weapons. Pulling on her foci gloves as she knelt by her pack, Mami briefly hugged her wheel-lock carbine to her chest in her familiar ritual. A hand squeezed her unoccupied shoulder, and she looked up to find Madoka giving her a reassuring smile. She returned it and lightly kissed her partner's fingers, then hefted herself up and headed for the hatch, the other two right behind her.

Homura took the first shot, firing a flash flare into the clouds. Despite the wind, the Incubators screeched and scattered from the sparks of light, but they could still see that the swarm of them was big enough that it was going to take extra firepower to fight through. 

“Charlotte, don’t let them get to the engines or the balloon,” Mami ordered, and the doll nodded a sharp agreement before sucking in a deep gasp of air to expand her mass into a heavier form. Sharp teeth flashing, she slithered off Mami’s back, hissing at the incoming creatures. 

Madoka pulled an attachment in her bracer, and the ‘shield’ built into the back of it expanded into a bow with a string that crackled lightning. Homura had put away the flare gun and drawn a new weapon of her own in the form of her short sword. Already, explosive shadows of it were sprouting from the hilt.

Mami blew into the gem on the back of her left glove, and a wreath of yellow smoke filled each chamber of the revolver barrel with fresh hollow-point bullets. She gave the barrel a quick spin for good luck, then raised the gun to aim at the first wave of monsters.

“All right, my darlings. Here we go.”


End file.
